Successful indication my birthday diving trip is off to a good start: Subsurface 3.0.2-79-g218fd994eea9 #hawaii

Is that code for something else? Diving...into what, exactly?

Hmm. It looks as if this were a slip-up and a match -- but these people are pretty wily -- and it isn't, exactly a match. Where was this island where Jake snorkled, was it near Honolulu or did he pass through Honolulu? Did Snowden go to the island or meet Jake in Honolulu -- months before May?

Interesting coincidence? Booz Allen has an office in Honolulu, and Edward Snowden went there to work -- deliberatley, as he later explained, in order the better to hack the NSA -- in about February 2013.

"In mid-May, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras contacted me," Appelbaum said. "She told me she was in contact with a possible anonymous National Security Agency (NSA) source who had agreed to be interviewed by her."

"She was in the process of putting questions together and thought that asking some specific technical questions was an important part of the source verification process. One of the goals was to determine whether we were really dealing with an NSA whistleblower. I had deep concerns of COINTELPRO-style entrapment. We sent our securely encrypted questions to our source. I had no knowledge of Edward Snowden's identity before he was revealed to the world in Hong Kong. He also didn't know who I was. I expected that when the anonymity was removed, we would find a man in his sixties."

Jacob goes out of his way to tell us that he had "no knowledge" of Snowden until he was "revealed to the world" in Hong Kong. But maybe they partied on the beach together in April 2013? or even earlier?

So who are the 20 friends? Are those re-tweeters and birthday-well-wishers among them, and are any of them involved in handling Snowden?

"Data retention tells a story about you that isn't necessarily true," says Jake sagely to his hacker buddies.

Successful indication my birthday diving trip is off to a good start: Subsurface 3.0.2-79-g218fd994eea9 #hawaii

Is that code for something else? Diving...into what, exactly?

Hmm. It looks as if this were a slip-up and a match -- but these people are pretty wily -- and it isn't, exactly a match. Where was this island where Jake snorkled, was it near Honolulu or did he pass through Honolulu? Did Snowden go to the island or meet Jake in Honolulu -- months before May?

Interesting coincidence? Booz Allen has an office in Honolulu, and Edward Snowden went there to work -- deliberatley, as he later explained, in order the better to hack the NSA -- in about February 2013.

"In mid-May, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras contacted me," Appelbaum said. "She told me she was in contact with a possible anonymous National Security Agency (NSA) source who had agreed to be interviewed by her."

"She was in the process of putting questions together and thought that asking some specific technical questions was an important part of the source verification process. One of the goals was to determine whether we were really dealing with an NSA whistleblower. I had deep concerns of COINTELPRO-style entrapment. We sent our securely encrypted questions to our source. I had no knowledge of Edward Snowden's identity before he was revealed to the world in Hong Kong. He also didn't know who I was. I expected that when the anonymity was removed, we would find a man in his sixties."

Jacob goes out of his way to tell us that he had "no knowledge" of Snowden until he was "revealed to the world" in Hong Kong. But maybe they partied on the beach together in April 2013? or even earlier?

So who are the 20 friends? Are those re-tweeters and birthday-well-wishers among them, and are any of them involved in handling Snowden?

"Data retention tells a story about you that isn't necessarily true," says Jake sagely to his hacker buddies.